The Life and Times of an Unwelcome Third Wheel
by Nat1
Summary: Tristan turned to see what Rory was looking at and rolled his eyes and said my name in that exasperated tone he had used with me my whole life, ‘Jordan.’
1. 01

Author: Nat

Rating: PG13

Spoilers: I'm Australian and because we're so far behind I don't think it applies… besides, it's mostly AU anyways.

Pairing: Rory/Tristan

Standard disclaimer applies

A/N: First, thanks to Surya for betaing and the title (you rock babe). The title is all her. Thanks to all those who encouraged me to post, Sus, Janine, Lessa, James… Others who's names I can't remember (Sorry!). I'd really appreciate some feedback on my style here, it's so different to anything I've ever done before.

Enjoy!

- The Life and Times of an Unwelcome Third Wheel -

_He had never been a nice guy. For an older brother he down right sucked. But he got better. She made him get better. I liked her more than I liked him, she would invite me to go places with them, she would let me crash at her house on the weekend. She wouldn't let him ignore me. And he tried to ignore me all the time. _

_The first time I met her, the first day I attended Chilton, she was wearing my clothes. Doesn't seem weird now, but then, it was more than weird. This girl I'd never laid eyes on, wearing one of t-shirts and my favourite pair of old jeans that curled under her heal in a pair of blue flip flops. It was after school and they were about the get into his car when she noticed me watching them as I walked up the driveway. She smiled._

_He had turned to see what she was looking at and rolled his eyes and said my name in that exasperated tone he had used with me my whole life, '_Jordan_.' _

***

Rory watched as Jordan came closer. So this was Tristan's little brother, and now that she could see him up close she recognised him from school. He was in seventh grade, had his orientation day today. And he looked like it too. His dark hair was half neat, half sticking up like Tristan's, his tie was cut in half and his shoelaces were missing. 

'Hey, you were in Paris's group today, right?' 

'Yeah. You're coffee girl.'

She grinned. 'Coffee girl huh? Better than Tristan's nickname for me, much more appropriate.'

'Not nearly.' Tristan smirked.

'I saw you a few times today. Didn't recognise you with out the uniform, but all three times you had coffee.' Jordan smirked and Rory raised a brow before looking at Tristan.

'What happened to your tie? Dad will flip if he sees it.'

Jordan ripped his cut in half tie off and threw it at Tristan. 'Your friends thought it would be funny. Pick on Tristan's little bother.'

Tristan laughed. 

Rory picked up the tie and put it in her backpack. 'Who did this to your tie?' 

'Michael Duffy. It wasn't so bad until I had to walk home." He gestured at himself.

'I told you this morning you'd have to get a lift home. This car only fits two people.'

'You walked home?' Rory asked giving Tristan a look.

'I got a lift to the Ashbury's and walked from there.'

'That's only down the block. What are you bitching about?' Tristan opened the passenger door and put Rory's bag on the floor.

'Well when you don't have any shoelaces it's not the easiest thing.' Rory was grinning, Jordan was starting to remind her more and more of Tristan. Turning from Tristan he addressed Rory again. 'So what's your real name?'

'We're going to be late if we don't leave now.' Tristan interrupted.

'If we're late we'll catch a later one. I'm Rory Gilmore.' 

'Right, you're the one Paris was yelling at during the Library tour.' 

'That's me. So we're going to see a movie, want to come with us?'

'Uh-' Both boys swung their heads towards the gate as a shiny new Mercedes drove through. Tristan straightened and swore under his breath while Jordan slumped.

'Go inside and get changed and we'll wait for you here.' Rory said as the car slowly advanced up the driveway.

'The car only seats two Mary, or did you miss that little fact.'

Rory gave Jordan a shove towards the house before turning to Tristan. 'We'll take your other car Tristan.'

Jordan had made it into the house just as the car pulled to a stop.

'Why do you have to be so nice all the time? We could have avoided this if you didn't feel the need to talk to Jordan.'

'Why do you have to be such a jerk all the time? Jordan coming to the movies with us isn't the end of the world you know?'

'I wouldn't bet on it. That kid is nothing but a pain in the ass. Also, talking to my Father might just be the end of the world.' Tristan slumped back against the car as his father approached them.

'Tristan, how was school?'

'Same old, same old, Dad.'

'I see, and who's your friend?'

Tristan sighed, 'Dad, this is Rory Gilmore, Rory, my father, David.'

'Rory Gilmore, Richard's grand daughter?'

'Yes sir,' Rory smiled offering her hand. 'Nice to meet you.'

'Likewise young lady, I hear that you were voted in as Junior Vice President this year with Paris Gellar.' She nodded as he shook her hand. 'Now what are you doing with this reprobate?'

Rory pulled her hand away and smiled at a frowning Tristan. 'We're just waiting for Jordan so we can catch a movie. No homework yet, and today was rather hectic, so we figured it would be a bit of a treat.'

'You managed to get Tristan to agree with Jordan going along?'

Rory laughed, 'I didn't even have to resort to bribery.'

David Dugrey laughed while Tristan's face got blacker. 'You should have been here last night when I told Tristan he had to drive Jordan to school this morning. Such a lot of fuss over a 5 minute drive.'

Jordan came running out the door sliding to a halt near Rory. 'Jordan, please son, you're not 10 anymore, a little more decorum is in order.'

'Yes sir.' His Father nodded and turned back to Rory.

'A pleasure to meet you dear, I hope to see you again soon. I'll let you kids go now, have fun.'

'Thanks Mr Dugrey, it was nice meeting you too.' Rory smiled as Tristan grabbed her school bag from his Mustang and opened the backdoor of his SUV to put it in there. Tristan and Rory climbed in the front of the SUV while Jordan climbed stealthily into the back still waiting for Tristan to tell him to get lost. 

It wasn't until they were a block away from the house that he opened his mouth. 'Wow Rory, you actually sounded like you meant that.'

She turned to face him, 'Meant what?'

'That you enjoyed meeting the old man.'

She smiled. 'I did, not quite the ogre Tristan described him as being.'

Tristan snorted, 'Cause you're a guest, a lovely young girl and a Gilmore to boot. Just wait until you've been around for a while, he'll blow his gasket in front of you no hesitation. He's just waiting to ream me about last night.'

Rory reached over and placed her hand on Tristan thigh as his jaw clenched. He slowly relaxed. 'If it was going to get you in trouble I'd have never let you come.'

'You wouldn't have been able to stop me.'

'What happened last night?' Jordan leaned forwards, putting his elbows on the back of their seats.

'Sit back and put your seatbelt on.' Tristan snapped at him.

'It is on, what happened last night?'

'Get off my seat and sit back!'

Jordan sat back, 'What happened last night?'

'None of your business.'

'You were in a shittier mood than normal this morning. Was it because you had to drive me to school? Is that what Dad's pissed about? Did you have another fight last night?'

'No, and shut up. It's none of your business.'

'Tell me.'

Tristan pulled sharply over to the side of the road, just around the corner from the entrance to the parking lot of the cinema. 'Get out of the car Jordan.'

'And do what?'

'I don't know and I don't care! Just get out!' Tristan smacked the steering wheel.

'Go stand in line for tickets Jordan. We'll park the car and meet you in a few minutes.' Rory smiled at him as he slid out. He slammed the door and Tristan took off with a squeal of tyres. 

_I don't know what she said to him once I was out of the car, but by the time they had joined me in the cinema he was in a better mood. He was smiling._

_I hadn't realised until then, that I hadn't seen my brother smile for years. I'd seen him smirk and grin and bullshit his way through by baring his teeth. But a smile that brought out his dimples and crinkled the corners of his eyes I hadn't seen that for such a long time that I'd forgotten what his smile looked like._

_She argued with him about paying and he was smiling about that too. He was gentle with her. I didn't think he knew how to be gentle. He treated her like she might break, but he didn't stop touching her the whole time he was with her. If I were her I'd have gotten annoyed with him, but she didn't. She just seemed to take it in stride. _

_The cinema had those old seats where you could fold the arm rests up and I remember thinking 'oh, great, I'm going to get to listen to my brother make out' but they didn't even kiss. The arm rest went up, her leg hooked over his, his hand rested on her knee while both her hands were busy shoving candies in her mouth while her eyes were glued to the screen. _

_After the movie, Tristan dropped me off before he took Rory home. He got home about three hours later and he was right. I could hear dad yelling at him from upstairs._


	2. 02

Author: Nat

Rating: PG13

Spoilers: I'm Australian and because we're so far behind I don't think it applies… besides, it's mostly AU anyways.

Pairing: Rory/Tristan

Standard disclaimer applies

A/N: First of all, thanks to Surya for betaing and the pimping of the first chapter. I got such an amazing response. Thanks to all those who reviewed and asked for more. I'm now such a review whore that after the first 9 reviews I got so hyped I wrote another chapter. Heres hoping that I get as many reviews this chapter and it spurs me along some more. 

Enjoy!

**- The Life and Times of an Unwelcome Third Wheel -**

I loved the way that Rory wouldn't take shit from anyone. But especially not from him. The first time she came to dinner was probably one of the strangest nights of my life. Rory and Dad facing off across the dinning room table, eating the roast dinner arguing back and forth about everything from the Trade Deficit to the latest Tom Clancy novel. She didn't back down from the argument either. 

Dad is a big guy, over 6'6", dark hair, blue eyed. He was a scary guy. Not that he scared me, more that I knew what it was like to get on his bad side. Tristan had been on his bad side for at least seven years now, I knew the consequences of not doing exactly what our Dad wanted. But Rory, man, she was like a pit bull, she just would not give up. 

_And I think Dad liked that about her. _

_While Tristan sat there scowling and our Mother sat there with that look that said she wasn't in the room, Rory and Dad worked up a sweat trying to beat out each other with literary insults. I sat quietly and ate my dinner._

_There were unspoken rules at our dinner table. You didn't speak unless you were spoken to, you ate everything on your plate, you didn't ask benign questions like 'how was your day dad' or 'what did you get up to today Mother'. They asked the questions, annoying questions like 'how are your grades' and 'did you make such-and-such a team yet', or at least Dad did when he was in a good mood._

_But Rory came to dinner and broke every rule we had. And Dad still liked her._

"So Rory, tell me how your grandparents are. I ran into Richard at the Club weekend before last and I believe he told me that you have dinner with them on Friday nights." Dessert was being served and David Dugrey leaned back in his chair to allow the maid to place the plate in its setting before him.

"They're well thank you. I'll let them know you asked after them." Rory smiled and slipped into a more relaxed posture now that dessert had been served and the debate about Salinger was over. 

"They must feel privileged to have such a wonderful grandchild. I have to haul these two by their ears to see their grandparents." Tristan grunted into his dessert as Jordan snorted into his. "Something to add boys?" 

"I see Pop every other Tuesday." Tristan raised his eyes to look at his father. "When was the last time you saw him?"

"You do?" Rory watched as David's eyebrows arched in surprise then drew down in thought. "What do you do?"

"We meet in a coffee shop and have something to eat and drink and talk about life's mysteries." Tristan said sarcastically

"I see. Do you join them Jordan?" Jordan's eyes were wide flicking from Tristan to his Father.

"No. I knew nothing about it." His petulant voice signifying his displeasure at once again being left out of something that Tristan got to do that he didn't.

"Well, I find that very commendable Son." David Dugrey nodded at Tristan before turning to Jordan. "Maybe you should look into making similar arrangements young man."

Rory smiled, wondering what twelve year old in their right mind would want to spend an afternoon after school with their grandfather. 

"So Mr Dugrey, do you golf at the club?" Rory asked trying to turn the conversation again.

"Rory, dear, please call me David. I won't ask you again."

She grinned impishly at him. "Ok, David, do you golf?"

"I used to, seems to take up entirely too much time these days. I occasionally manage to squeeze in a short nine-hole game on a Sunday though. How about yourself?"

"My grandfather taught me. We have fun when we manage to get time to play together. He's having too much fun running his business to have fun on the golf course now days."

"Yes, well he has made a marvellous success of it." 

Jordan waited until Rory met his eyes before mouthing the word 'brown-noser' at her causing her to choke on her tiramisu in a fit of giggles. 

Cecille Dugrey who had remained mute during the whole of dinner after the first brief introduction to Rory started to flap about. "Oh, dear! Are you alright sweetheart? Would you like some water? Jordan go and get some water!"

"Rory?" Tristan's dropped spoon clattered on the table.

"I'm ok." She coughed repeatedly. "Just went down the wrong way is all."

She was red faced, but the half standing, half still in his seat Jordan was just as red. Something that didn't escape Tristan's notice.

"What did you do Jordan?" Suddenly all eyes we're on him and they watched as the red that was flaming across his cheeks melted down his neck.

"Nothing." Rory to Jordan's rescue again. "I'm fine Tristan. Though I would like that water please."

Jordan bolted from the table before she had half finished the request.

Dinner ended with Rory never getting the drink of water, Jordan having disappeared. Cecille Dugrey pleaded a headache and retired to her bed for the night leaving Rory and Tristan with David in the sitting room while David and Rory sipped at strong, bitter smelling coffee. 

"So what are you kids going to do tonight?"

Rory sipped at her coffee. "Watch a movie I think."

She raised an eyebrow in question at Tristan. "Yeah, I got a couple of dvd's. Should keep us out of trouble."

David laughed heartily climbing out of his chair. "Good thing, son, good thing. Well Rory, if you're staying late, you're welcome to one of the guest rooms. Just make sure to call your mother and let her know you're alright."

"Thanks, but I won't be here that late. I have to be home by one."

"Oh but that's too late to be driving all that way! Would you like me to call your mother? I'll let her-"

Rory smiled tightly. "No, that's ok."

David Dugrey nodded. "Ok dear, just know you're welcome anytime."

Rory nodded and he left the room. Tristan let out an explosive breath of air and slumped back into the chair. "God. I thought he'd never leave."

Rory smiled and stood, offering her hand to Tristan to pull him to his feet. "C'mon. What movies did you get?"

Tristan rambled off a bunch of names as he led Rory upstairs to the games room where an entertainment centre was set up for his and Jordan's use. Rory kicked off her shoes and collapsed onto the leather couch as Tristan busied himself putting the dvd in, grabbing a blanket for them to curl into and turning the lights off.

Landing next to Rory he pulled her to him and flipped play with the remote before he threw it back onto the coffee table. His mouth immediately moved to her neck lightly sucking and biting.

Her eyes closed and she arched into him before pulling away slightly.

"I thought we were going to watch the movies."

"We can." Tristan spoke around the light kisses his lips were now landing.

"You don't seem to be concentrating on it."

He grinned at her as she turned to meet his eyes. "That's why I put in the Sandra Bullock one first. What's there to concentrate on other than you and me and making out?"

Rory leaned in and pressed a kiss to his mouth, pulling away before he could deepen it. "I like the sound of that, but I want to watch the movie."

"You can watch the next one." Tristan growled and rolled her onto her back so that she was half under him before he crushed his mouth to hers. 

Rory opened her lips to his tongue and ran her hands up under his shirt arching her back, pressing into him. He crawled further onto her, his hands tangled in her hair and lightly ground against her, pulling back before she could protest. Repeating the motion until she started to push back. He was about to grind into her harder when the door flung open and Jordan let himself in.

Tristan sat up and Rory flinched when he yelled. "Get out!"

"No! I came to watch the movies with you."

Feeling Tristan gather himself to get up and chase after Jordan who was standing at the door with that same infuriating smirk that drove her insane when Tristan used it on her in the past, she sat up and gave him a light kiss before turning to Jordan. 'Come on in and have a seat. We'll start again so you can see it from the beginning."

She smiled at Tristan who was scowling at her. She grabbed the remote then pulled Tristan down to her again before hitting the back button to start again. 

Tristan and Jordan fell asleep halfway though the second movie. Rory gave Tristan a kiss goodbye before covering Jordan with another blanket and beat her curfew home where her mother was waiting to hear about her dinner. 

Tristan woke up at four am with a kink in his neck and tied Jordan's shoelaces together.

Jordan woke up and tripped over, cracking his skull on the coffee table and needed four stitches.

_The next week I listened as my father sang Tristan's praises in finally finding a girl worthy of his time. Tristan's time that is. I knew my brother liked girls and that he wasn't gay, I always used to spy on him at parties and things when he used to sneak off with girls. Most every time it was a different girl though. This was about the forth time Rory had been to our house though. Tristan had never brought a girl home before, at least not to introduce them to our parents and have them stay for dinner. Rory was different._

_I wondered why._

_It wasn't like Dad hadn't met Tristan's girlfriends before. You can't avoid introductions at those parties sometimes. But I hardly ever heard Dad say anything nice about them more than 'she's from a good family' type thing. But Dad raved about Rory. In his own way anyway._

_He asked how she was when ever he and Tristan were in the same room. He asked about her more than he did about us. And I could just tell that he was proud of Tristan._

_Like he did anything to make Rory the person she is._

_I overheard him talking on the phone one night, bragging to one of his associates about Tristan and Rory. 'My eldest son Tristan, what a great kid he is, dating young Rory Gilmore, Richard's granddaughter. She's the junior vice president, going to be valedictorian and go to Harvard, she's one young lady with her head screwed on right' blah, blah, blah. _

_The only time I remember him ever bragging about us to his friends and associates is when one of us topped a class or won something. Not counting the Company Christmas Party Story™. _

_Every year Dad would stand on the stage, with his champagne in hand with arm was wrapped around his wife and Tristan and I to his side he would recite that story. Everyone would drunkenly laugh at Tristan while they showered me with those condescending smiles._

_'We all know that one day I'll be too old and decrepit to run the business.'_

_One of the drunken mob would interrupt - 'No way David, you'll outlive us all you stubborn old bastard!'_

_More laughter._

_'Stubborn I'll give you, but not yet old!' More laughter 'But we all know that the company will be left in good hands. My two young sons here already have excellent head's for business!'_

_Then he'd slap us both on our backs while Tristan grinned. _

_'At the tender age of seven, Tristan here tried to sell two year old Jordan.' A light laughter would filter through the room as those people who were new to the company would laugh thinking that was all there was to the story._

_'Now, Tristan, not only did he try to sell young Jordan here, he taught him to cry when someone would say they didn't want to buy him!'_

_Laughter would erupt and Tristan would just stand there smirking._

_'Now Tristan only asked for an Oreo back then, but its good business to know what your product is worth and asking for anything less is bad business. But hopefully he'd realise that Jordan is worth at least a pack of Oreos these days!' _

_More loud laughter before Tristan would speak._

'These days I'd give a pack of Oreos if someone wanted to take him' 

_For the rest of the night, Dad would sing Tristan's praises while haughty ladies in fur would pinch my cheeks and call me adorable, saying I was at least worth two packs of Oreos._

_And all the time Tristan would be feeling up some hot chick out on the balcony._

_Now he has Rory. He gets everything._

_I hate him sometimes._


	3. 03

Author: Nat

Rating: PG13

Spoilers: I'm Australian and because we're so far behind I don't think it applies… besides, it's mostly AU anyways.

Pairing: Rory/Tristan

Standard disclaimer applies

A/N: First thanks of course go out to Surya and Sus for their betaing efforts. Great gals. Next thanks go out to those who are reviewing me, thanks so much… I never really cared if I got them before or not… But it really does seem to spur on the muse :) And of course constructive criticism is always welcome.

A little background info maybe? Jordan's journal entries are completely random… So he could be writing about something that happened in the past or something that happened that day… It's all mixed up, which is going to make trying to put the story into any timeline insanity. Sorry if that's annoying. What happens is we read Jordan's entry then we segue to Rory's take on what was happening at the time… Which is written in the current tense. Or at least that's my goal. I'll more than likely screw it up many times. Which is why you'll probably never find out why Tristan was in trouble in the first chapter (hee! You can just use your imagination for that one).

Anyways, hope you enjoy!

**- The Life and Times of an Unwelcome Third Wheel -**

_I once asked Rory how long she and Tristan had been together. It started a fight between them. He was so dumb about her sometimes. The gist of it was that before summer break he had asked her to go to a concert. She turned him down flat and then her ex had shown up and she ran to him and blah, blah, blah. For the first time in his life something that my brother wanted didn't fall into his lap. It still pissed him off._

_But luck has always been on his side._

_Apparently her best friend won tickets for the concert from a radio station that same day and after a fight with the ex, she went to the concert._

_Long story short, they were in the same section and stuff happened. I don't know what they fought about. I left the room. Of course when I came back in fifteen minutes later the fight was over and they were kissing again._

_You couldn't walk into a room where they were alone without finding them making out. It got to be rather annoying. Then it got to be a game where I interrupted every chance I got. I was lucky to escape with minor flesh wounds. I'm pretty sure that if it weren't for Rory, he would have scalped me._

_What was weird though, was that I rarely saw them together at school. Occasionally I'd see them walking to class together, but they didn't sit together during lunch, they didn't make out before school or between classes. Which was very weird when out of school they didn't stop touching._

_Unless they were fighting._

_And when they were fighting I didn't go near him for fear of my life._

_Occasionally we ended up at the same party, Chilton is a rather incestuous place. All the parents know each other and stuff, so if a senior has a party and he happens to have a sibling in the 8th grade, you tend to get a lot of 8th graders there too. _

_I'd witnessed a few of Tristan's parties and they tended to be a little wilder when there were no younger kids there, but for some reason, the party at the Johnstone's had quickly spiralled out of control._

_I can't remember why Rory wasn't there, not that she would have been there anyways, she and Tristan had had another fight, but she had something else to do, with Lorelai maybe. Tristan was there drinking with his friends. But of course, when I needed him, I couldn't find him anywhere._

_It was probably around 11.30pm when I called Rory. _

Rory pulled the jeep into the drive at around midnight and jammed on the parking break, angry with everyone. She'd had a bad day and wasn't it Tristan's responsibility to look after his younger brother? Why did she have to be the one to drive half an hour in the dark through the rain to pick him up and take him home? Where was Tristan anyway? He said he was going to this party.

God! He was infuriating. She should probably track his ass down too, because she knew him, and she knew he shouldn't be driving anywhere after a party. 

The only thing was, that after their last fight she wasn't sure she wanted to look for him. She wasn't sure if she wanted to see what he was doing at the party without her. 

Rory took a deep breath and walked in through the open front door, gagging on the thick smell of weed that permeated the air. She hated Chilton parties. She started searching for Jordan in the downstairs room.

She hadn't been there two minutes before Tristan found her. 

"I thought you didn't want to come." He leaned insolently against the door to the small room she was in, a bottle of Corona dangling from his fingertips.

"I didn't." Her voice was tight and he knew she was pissed but he pressed his luck anyway.

"So why are you here then?" He put his arm across the doorway, blocking her exit.

"I'm here because your brother called me. I'm here because he couldn't find you." She could faintly smell the beer on his breath.

"He's a big boy. He can take care of himself." Rory took in his tight jaw and hooded eyes. He was pissed at Jordan, but he was also hiding something from her.

"You really don't want me here do you? Well not to worry, I'll be gone as soon as I find _your_ little brother and make sure for myself that he's alright." She went to move past him, but he crowded her back into the room and closed the door behind him.

"I want you here. I'm not the one who had a tantrum, remember? I was the one who wanted us _both_ to come. You could have kept an eye on the precious little baby all night if you had come, but no, Miss Priss didn't want to associate with the dregs of Chilton!"

"Tristan, get out of my way. Don't start this fight again now." Rory's voice was quiet and Tristan knew he had gone too far. He had known that Jordan would call her and that he would get to talk to her, that's why he'd avoided him for the past hour, but it was Rory and he just didn't have any restraint when it came to her. Fighting the need to want to prove to her that he wasn't as big a bastard as he came across, fighting the need to continue the argument, he lifted his back from the door and opened it.

"Come on. He's upstairs."

"You know where he is? Why aren't you with him?"

"He's drunk Rory, it's not a life threatening condition."

"He's a twelve year old kid Tristan! He's alone, in a strange house, throwing up his breakfast!"

"Yeah, well maybe it'll teach him not to drink the spiked punch huh?" Tristan strode up the stairs two at a time leaving Rory to catch up behind him. He pushed open a door in the long corridor where they found Jordan passed out on the floor. "I'm impressed. I didn't get as drunk as this until I was fifteen. Guess he's finally-"

"Shut up Tristan, just shut up."

Tristan smirked and leaned his ass against the vanity, his long legs crossed at the ankles in front of him, steadily drinking his beer as Rory grabbed a towel and wet it down using it to clean up the bathroom as best she could. Sitting a moaning Jordan up against the bath she flushed the toilet and looked up at Tristan.

She took his beer, which he let go of with a sigh before he bent and picked up Jordan.

"Take him to the jeep." Rory flung the bottle into the bin and grabbed another towel before following Tristan down the stairs.

"If you take him home like this Dad will skin him alive." Tristan skirted around the edge of the large room at the bottom of the stairs, holding Jordan against his chest, avoiding the majority of people.

"I was planning on taking him home to Stars Hollow." Rory replied from close behind. Continuing out the door and down the drive to where he saw the jeep parked Tristan rolled his eyes. Lorelai loved Jordan where as she merely liked him. Maybe this would turn the tables a little. 

"Good idea."

Rory flung the towel across the back seat and held the door open while Tristan dumped Jordan on top of it. Rolling her eyes in aggravation she pushed Tristan out of the way and crawled onto the back seat, arranging Jordan in a more comfortable manner before slipping a seatbelt around him. 

Tristan stood in the door and somehow managed to restrain his impulse to reach out and run his hand over her jean-clad ass that was tantalising his alcohol loaded hormones as she leaned over Jordan. And before he could move out of the way Rory had backed out of the jeep and was pressing against him. Certainly not intentionally on her part, but he held her against him once she was there. Tristan felt her sigh as his arousal made itself known to her.

"Ror."

Pulling away, she slipped around him and pushed the door closed. Climbing into the driver's seat she wound down the window. 

Her expression was blank and her voice tired as she took in the slumped form beside her. "Are you coming with us or are you staying here?"

Tristan looked from Rory to the mansion with all its lights on, windows open, music blaring and rowdy teenagers before turning back to look at her again. Giving her a small nod he made his way around to the passenger door and climbed in as Rory started the engine.

One of the best things about Rory is that she doesn't judge. She doesn't yell at you when you do something as monumentally stupid as getting rotten-fall-down-pass-out-drunk at a party when you're 12 years old. 

_But she will yell at your older brother for not watching out for you._

_After calling Rory, I woke up the next morning dead. _

_Everything hurt, from the sound of blood rushing through my body to the light blinding me through my closed eyes. _

_I moved and dry-retched. I had nothing left in me to throw up having hurled all my insides last night. _

_Tristan was sprawled on the couch in his boxers and I was on the floor on the scabby old foam mattress that was kept around the house for emergency situations. They called it Sick Sam._

_I was obviously not the first person who they had let die in their living room. _

_Rory came in from the kitchen with a coffee cup in one hand and a cup of water in the other._

_She gave me the water and instructed me to sip it slowly. Then she handed me the ibuprofen._

_At that point I decided she was an angel sent to me from wherever._

_Then she woke up Tristan and started to yell at him. I started to wish I really was dead._

_Who knew that Rory could be so frigging loud and vindictive?_


	4. 04

Author: Nat

Rating: PG13

Spoilers: I'm Australian and because we're so far behind I don't think it applies… besides, it's mostly AU anyways.

Pairing: Rory/Tristan

Standard disclaimer applies

A/N: Thanks again to Sur & Sus for betaing. This fic would be nowhere near as readable without them. Thanks to Panda, Angel, Inf & and absentee Jewls for the late late night brainstorm. Thanks to those who review each chapter, 45 reviews already! I'm amazed by this. There can't possibly be a more supportive fandom out there. Feedback is appreciated and feeds the muse!

Enjoy!

**- The Life and Times of an Unwelcome Third Wheel -**

_My mother is bipolar. For as long as I can remember she's been medicated for the problem. She's fine when she's on her meds, a little distant, a little detached from the reality of things that are going on around her. But she's fine. She can function in social situations and stuff._

_She loves to dress up. She always seems to shine just a little bit brighter when she's wearing diamonds. _

_The symptoms started to develop when I was about 4 I guess. I can't really remember a time before she got sick, so I was fairly young.  _

_Anyway, the Doctor decided to try her on a new medication and she didn't like it. So she went off the meds all together and started to flush the pills so Dad wouldn't know. Tristan went on about how we should have known and stuff, but Dad kept saying that there was no way we could have known. She knew how to hide the symptoms from us, she'd had years of practice._

_She knew that staying on the meds was the best thing for her and she was generally good with taking them, but something would happen and she'd miss a day or two and then she'd miss more and then she'd start to avoid taking them, then everything in our house would fall apart again. Because as hard as it was on her, it was just as hard on us._

_I'd never seen Tristan cry before._

Rory was lying out on the couch, her head on Tristan's lap as they watched Mel Gibson's Hamlet talk to Glenn Close's Gertrude on the big screen in the games room. Jordan lay sprawled over a chair, his foot bouncing in and out of Tristan's line of sight.

"Jordan! Either keep your foot still or move it!"

"Make me." Jordan smirked in Rory's direction knowing that Tristan wasn't going to move. Three heads turned towards the door at the sound of glass smashing. Turning her attention back to the movie, Rory shrugged it off as one of the maids having an accident. Tristan's hand was wound in her hair slowly lulling her to sleep and her eyes were just drifting shut, when there was a knock at the door.

"Tristan?" The maid's timid voice sounded and he turned to face the door.

"What is it?"

"It's Mrs Dugrey-"

Tristan and Jordan were out the door within seconds. "Where is she?"

"She's in the master bedroom."

They were in the room by the time Rory got halfway there, and she didn't see much as Jordan came out and closed the door behind him. He grabbed her hand and pulled her down the stairs. She sat in the sitting room as Jordan grabbed the phone. 

In her mind there was so much blood. More than she knew she had actually seen.

Jordan ended the call to his father and opened the large front door before going to pace at the bottom of the stairs. Rory could see the tension run through his body with each step.

"I thought she was ok." Jordan's eyes snapped up to meet hers. "Tristan told me she was ok with the medication."

Jordan jumped. "I guess she hasn't been taking them again."

He shrugged his shoulders irritably moving towards the door, as the sirens of the ambulance got closer. Rory sat quietly, her heart aching for this young boy who had worked his way into her heart in such a short time. 

The ambulance pulled up and Rory remained sitting as Jordan led them up the stairs to where Tristan was with their mother. 

David Dugrey came rushing into the house and went straight up the stairs.

Rory had never felt so useless in her life.

A short time later, Cecille Dugrey had been taken out on a stretcher with David Dugrey at her side. Jordan had locked himself in his room and Tristan was showering. He had come down the stairs looking for her with blood all over him. He gave Rory a distracted kiss goodbye and told her he would see her tomorrow before walking Rory to the door. 

And as much as Rory was worried about him, she knew there was nothing she could do for him until he decided that he wanted to talk about it. So when he turned up at the doorway of her home in Stars Hollow an hour after she got home she was more than a little shocked to see he had brought Jordan with him.

He never let Jordan go anywhere with him unless Rory convinced him to. She silently held the door open to them.

She pulled Jordan to her, giving him a hug as he came through the door before Tristan. "Are you alright?"

He smiled at her. "Sure."

And Rory knew he really was okay. He moved on into the living room settling down on the couch as Tristan wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tight to him. "And how about you? Are you alright?"

Tristan smiled at her. "Sure."

And she knew he wasn't okay. Pulling him inside and closing the door behind him, she pushed him down onto the couch. She moved to grab the remote but Tristan pulled her back onto his lap and wrapped himself around her again. With her hands in his hair she felt him start to shake.

And then she felt the warm wet tears run over her collarbone from where his head was buried in her neck.

Looking over at Jordan who was sitting ramrod straight avoiding all eye contact with any part of Tristan she gave a small smile. "If you want, Luke promised to give you a free meal if you could convince Lorelai to drink something other than coffee. She's there now if you wanted to see her."

Jordan nodded and bolted out the door.

"Babe?" Rory leaned back, pulling Tristan slightly away from her and her heart broke as she saw the look of utter desolation in his eyes.

"I dunno why I'm crying. I hate crying."

"You don't know why you're crying?" Rory asked in disbelief.

"I've seen it before. Plenty of times, its like an annual thing you know, there's Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Save Your Mother's Life, your birthday, prom."

"Jesus Tristan, it's not wrong to cry about something like this you know?" Tristan shrugged and Rory let it go. "How come you brought Jordan with you?"

"Just didn't want to leave him alone in the house for when Dad got home."

"Why not? Your dad is a nice guy Tristan." Tristan wiped the last of his tears from his eyes.

"To you. To us, not so much. He's going to be in a rotten mood for weeks, especially while his wife is still in the clinic. And he'll take it all out on Jordan."

"Not you?" Rory's hands were gently massaging the back of Tristan's neck.

"Not me." Running his hands down to her hips and turning her so she was straddling him, Tristan pulled her closer to him, his lips lightly brushing hers. "I don't want to talk about it anymore."

"No?" 

"No." Rory moved her mouth to his neck, licking, sucking and biting along the corded muscle as he dropped his head back. 

So he didn't want to talk about, she wasn't really surprised, he never really wanted to talk about anything that mattered. He didn't like to talk about his problems, he didn't like pity and he didn't like sympathy. But he was upset, and she did know one form of comfort he would accept.

Standing up and pulling him to his feet, Rory moved to him letting him lift her to wrap her legs around his waist, carrying her to her bedroom. He turned and sat on the bed with Rory still wrapped around him, grinding hard against his arousal. Rory moved her hands down his arms to his waist, pulling his shirt up and over his head before moving her mouth down over his chest. Her fingers worked at his belt even as he roughly pulled her top off. 

The front door slammed.

"Rory? Tristan?"

Tristan flopped back on the bed, his eyes closed and mouth screwed up in annoyance. "Jordan."

_I totally flipped it._

_I mean, that was my big brother. Crying. He doesn't cry._

_And I just didn't get it. We've seen it before. It's not the first time our mother has cut herself up._

_But then, he always did send me out of the room, 'Go call Dad', 'Go call an ambulance', 'Go see if the maid is alright'._

_'Go stay with Rory for me' was the latest to keep me out of the room._

_And I was grateful for it. I didn't want to see her bleeding to death on the $12,000 Oriental rug. _

_I knew that she would talk to him when I wasn't in the room. I could hear the murmur of her voice as he made her speak to him. I always wondered what she said to him. I once was able to distinguish the words 'hate you' but I never knew if the words before it were 'I don't' or 'I do'._

_I'd never really thought about it before, but Tristan must have remembered what she was like before she got sick._

_He must have remembered what it was like to have a mother._


	5. 05

Author: Nat

Rating: PG13

Spoilers: I'm Australian and because we're so far behind I don't think it applies… besides, it's mostly AU anyways.

Pairing: Rory/Tristan

Standard disclaimer applies

A/N: Thanks of course to Surya and Sus for their betaing efforts. Any mistakes are mine. Thanks to those who are sticking with this story, even after the last depressing part. I'm slowly working up to funny. Hopefully.

Sorry to those of you who are a little confused with linking the chapters together… but there really is no time line for this fic, it's flicking back and forth through time… just like how it goes in a diary. 

Enjoy!

**- The Life and Times of an Unwelcome Third Wheel -**

Rory and Lorelai had a fight. 

_It was huge enough that she stayed in Hartford. She had never stayed at our house before. She always stuck to her curfew, she went home no matter how tired she was, no matter how many times Dad or Tristan insisted she was more than welcome to a guest room. Whether she drove or Tristan had to drive because she was too tired, she always went home. The one exception was the night she had caught a cab and gone to stay at her grandparents because both her and Tristan had been too tired to drive to Stars Hollow._

_But the night that Rory stayed Tristan tried to convince her to go home. And I knew then that the fight was about him. _

_Its not that Lorelai didn't like Tristan, she did, but she in no way trusted him. _

_I knew it grated on Rory, the whole trust issue, she thought that Lorelai should trust her, no matter who her boyfriend was I guess. _

_They very rarely fought about anything. Argued about where to eat or what movie to watch sure, but they never fought. But more and more Rory would show up at our house upset over something Lorelai had said or done. She and Tristan would go into his bedroom and close the door behind them. _

_Sometimes I could hear yelling, sometimes laughter. And she always came out and left before her curfew._

_After the fight, it was a Friday, she came around to our house after school when Tristan was away. _

_I let her in as usual, but she didn't leave in time to make curfew as usual. _

_She stayed._

**

"Rory?" Jordan opened the door and took a step back. Rory knew she was a mess, but she didn't think she looked that bad. Surely red eyes weren't that scary.

"Tristan home yet?"

"Uh, no. Did you want to wait?" Rory nodded and stepped through the large door as Jordan stepped back to let her pass. "You want something to eat or drink?"

"Coffee?" Jordan smirked.

"Sure. You want to wait in the games room? I'll tell Donna to bring it up there."

Rory nodded and walked slowly up the stairs. She let herself into the room where the large screen TV was playing Dragonball Z and sunk into a window seat overlooking the back gardens. Jordan came in and slumped in front of the TV, not even batting an eyelid when the maid brought in Rory's coffee. An hour later his DVD had finished and Rory was asleep leaning against the window.

"Rory?" She woke to Jordan lightly shaking her shoulder. "You want me to call Tristan?"

She nodded and stretched. "Yeah. I'm gonna go lie down."

Jordan nodded and grabbed the phone as Rory left, walking down the hall to Tristan's bedroom. His bed was unmade, the covers thrown half off the bed, half on the floor. She kicked off her shoes and lay on his bed, pulling the covers over herself. She hated fighting with Lorelai and it didn't happen very often, but lately it was all they seemed to do. 

She buried her face into Tristan's pillow, breathing in the comforting smell of him waiting for him to come to her. 

She was just starting to drift off to sleep again when he came bounding through the door. 

"You okay Mary?"

Rory felt her eyes tear up again and shook her head.

Tristan crawled onto the bed next to her and pulled her to him, tangling their arms and legs around each other and held her as she sobbed waiting until she calmed down.

"What happened?"

"We had another fight. A huge fight." Rory rolled her head into his hand that was smoothing her hair.

"About me?"

"No. Yes. Kind of, but not." She felt him tense beside her.

"What was it about then?"

"Sex." Tristan nodded. "It started off about you and sex and then it morphed into this big thing about her not trusting us and how I was going to screw everything up and become exactly what my grandmother-"

"Ror." Tristan cut off her mad babbling. "Start at the beginning. What happened?"

"She found the condoms." He nodded.

"But she knew we were having sex. She took you to the doctor to get your prescription for the pill herself."

She shrugged. "I think she was in denial. She didn't think we were but the half empty box of condoms-"

"Confirmed it."

"Yeah." 

Tristan pulled her hands away from his shirt where her fingers had been balling the material up then smoothing it out again. Holding them against his chest he gave her forehead a light kiss. "Then what happened?"

"She lost it. Started yelling about how I was going to get pregnant and screw up my future and it was all your fault and then I started to yell back."

Tristan lifted a brow in surprise, usually Rory let everything bad Lorelai said about Tristan roll off her. He nodded at her to continue.

"I just got so angry at her, at all her double standards. She was having sex at fourteen you know. I wait until I'm seventeen, I wait until I'm in love, I make sure I'm safe. But she just goes on about how I'm going to live down to all grandma's expectations." Rory sniffed and buried her face in Tristan's chest for a moment before she pulled away to continue. "It's just, she cut me off from this huge part of life. Something I could have had a long time ago if she hadn't been spouting all her paranoia at me."

"What do you mean?"

"I ignored guys until I was fifteen. Then when I do notice them, one kiss and I run away scared. Because all my life all I've ever heard were the bad things. About teenage pregnancy and diseases, I heard the only person you can rely on is yourself, that guys just aren't trustworthy. She never told me how nice it was to just spend hours kissing, just because it felt nice to lie next to the person you're with and feel their lips on yours. She never told me that there's intimacy in laughing in the dark. She never told me about intimacy at all. She never told me that sex could be a good thing. That it could put a smile on my face that would last for days. All this crap from her about it and she can't even be in the same house as my dad without having sex with him!"

"Mary." Rory moved her head to meet Tristan's eyes.

Tristan's hand had moved under her shirt and rested comfortably on the dip of her waist. Rory moved her hand to his neck. "Just this you know, skin to skin contact? It feels good, it's comforting. But I never learned that from her. I had to wait for you, you of all people."

"Ror." He gave her a look.

"I know, I'm sorry. But you know what I mean! We were hardly what anyone would call friends to start with Tristan. She's my best friend, she's supposed to tell me everything. The good and the bad, I just spewed this all out at her. I was so angry. I called her heartless you know?" Rory's voice was strained and harsh as the argument ran through her mind again.

"Mary, you didn't mean it. Why don't I take you home and you can apologise?"

Rory sat up and turned her back to him. "But I did mean it Tristan. She said some awful things to me and I said some awful things back. I'm not going to apologise. Not today. I think we need a bit of a break, from each other."

He sat up and pulled her into his lap. "You're going to have to go home eventually."

"Not tonight, not yet." 

He nodded. "Later then."

Rory nodded and leaned in against him, ducking her head under his chin letting him hold her.

**

_Tristan asked her if she wanted him to take her home, or to her grandparents and for the first time she refused saying she wanted to stay here. _

_They argued about it in whispers._

_But she stayed. _

_She stayed the whole weekend and didn't leave until Sunday afternoon. I know Tristan called Lorelai to let her know that she was ok because I over heard them. _

_He was going on about how he was just trying to do the right thing by Rory and she must have said something particularly nasty back to him because his face closed up and got that cold look that Dad got when he was really pissed off. _

_It was cool having Rory stay the weekend. She wore my clothes all weekend and made Tristan let me tag along when they went to the movies. She helped me do my homework and came to my soccer game to cheer me on._

_We lost by a pathetic 14 goals and she took me to get ice cream._

_Dad said it was like rewarding a puppy that had done a shit on the carpet, though in much nicer terms. Rory said it was just a game and that she just really liked ice cream. _

_It was always great to watch Dad and Rory argue, and it was even more fun to watch Tristan mope when she ignored him in favour of Dad or me. _

_Of course, she had to go home eventually and when she did, she didn't come back for weeks._


	6. 06

Author: Nat

Rating: PG13

Spoilers: I'm Australian and because we're so far behind I don't think it applies… besides, it's mostly AU anyways.

Pairing: Rory/Tristan

Standard disclaimer applies

A/N: Of course, first is my thanks to my betas Surya and Sus. Kisses kids!

And hey! Over 100 reviews for my first five chapters, that's so freaking exciting! I adore reviews, I love them, I worship reviewers! 

'If you review it, she will write more.'

Enjoy!

**- The Life and Times of an Unwelcome Third Wheel -**

_Nocturnal Emissions._

_Until last night they had never been something to be concerned about. _

_That was last night though._

_This morning I woke up, feeling good, feeling warm and wet. _

_It took a minute for the dream to slowly fade before the physical reality set in. _

_God._

_How embarrassing. I wonder what he did when this happened. Does it still happen to him? I mean he has Rory now, so its not like he isn't having sex or anything right?_

_I got up and stripped the sheets off the bed. I didn't think the maid would say anything, but I still didn't want her to see it. I balled them up and put them in the hamper with my boxers. I'd never used so much soap in the shower before._

_God!_

_Ok, so what's so embarrassing? All boys have them, right? So what if it was about Rory. _

_Hers were the first breasts I'd seen that weren't in a magazine or on one of Tristan's pornos. It wasn't something I did on purpose, but if they insist on getting naked every time they're behind closed doors then what can I do?_

_God! _

_I don't need those images in my head again.  I had a wet dream. So what if it was about Rory? She's always around, she's pretty, she's nice and she_

_STUPID BROTHER!_

*

"Rory!" Rory turned from her locker to see Tristan running down the hall with a huge grin on his face, Jordan running behind him trying to grab him. "Ror, wait 'til you hear this!"

"What is it?" She smiled at Jordan who flushed and muttered at her.

"Hey."

"So this morning-"

"Don't Tristan." Jordan grabbed his arm.

Tristan started to laugh again and leaned back against Paris's locker. "It's too funny."

"What?" Rory looked from Tristan to Jordan.

Tristan was still gasping for breath when he pulled her ear to his mouth. "Jordan had his first wet dream. Want to know who it was about? You."

Rory's face flushed bright red. Jordan reached out and punched Tristan hard before stomping off. Rory followed suit.

"You're such a bastard Tristan." She slammed her locker closed before slapping his chest and walking away.

"What?" Tristan laughed as he followed her down the corridor. "It's hilarious!"

"No, it's embarrassing!" Rory walked into her homeroom leaving a grinning Tristan in the corridor. 

Rory made it through the day, with minimal teasing from Tristan. Mostly because she avoided him like the plague. It was a shame she hadn't been able to avoid Jordan like that. Between every class she had run into him, once literally. He would mutter at her as both their faces flamed bright red. 

End of the day and Rory felt like she was in remission. No more Tristan, no more Jordan, no more Paris.

Now she just had to survive the weekly dinner with her grandparents and a weekend with a sulking mother.   

Rory was sick of her mother's attitude. She hadn't been to Tristan's house for weeks. It was starting to grate on her nerves that her mother wouldn't acknowledge the efforts she'd made to get along better with her. But no, Lorelai was an expert sulker, and since Rory hadn't given into her every whim she was doing an excellent job of driving a wedge between the two of them.

Dinner at her grandparents was barely tolerable and Rory had gotten up half way through the main meal and left. The arguments, the sulking, the underhanded remarks had all added up to another fight, this time at the large dinning room table in front of Richard and Emily. Rory grabbed her bag and slammed the door behind her. She pulled out her cell phone and called Tristan.

"Yeah?" 

"Tristan, can you come get me?" Rory was out the gate, her heels clicking on the sidewalk.

"You at your grandparents?"

"Not anymore."

"Where are you?"

Rory looked at the street signs. "I'm at the corner of Elm and Beechworth." 

"Don't move, I'm five minutes away."

"That's quick."

"Yeah, well you know me, when it comes to you and-"

"Don't." 

Tristan laughed at her through the phone. "Five minutes."

He hung up and Rory sat on the curb tucking her dress under her, drawing her knees to her chest.

His Mustang slid around the corner and came to a stop before her. She opened the door and flung her bag into the back.

"Where to?" 

"Anywhere my Mother isn't."

"My place?" Rory didn't miss the apprehension in his voice.

"Sure." With a shake of his head he grinned over at her.

"You can read Jordan's journal with me. See what other dirty little things he's written about you in there."

"God, no. Didn't you notice the avoiding today?"

"I noticed, but it's still funny. Want to know what he has to say about Jessica and Christina?" He smirked at her.

"About who?"

"Your boobs."

"You named my breasts?"

"It's a habit I picked up somewhere." Tristan flashed his dimples at her.

"So, you named them after two bleach blonde ditz'? Gee, that's beyond flattering."

"Want to know what Jordan-"

"God, you're in an annoyingly good mood. Would you shut up about that already?"

Tristan pulled the car into the garage. "It's been an exceptionally good day."

"Even with me avoiding you?"

"You might have been avoiding me, but I was watching you, and all you managed to do was run into Jordan instead of me. I like seeing you flush red. Just like that." His eyes glittered teasingly as he looked at her and the familiar feeling of heat flowed up her neck and across her face.

Tristan opened the door and stepped back allowing Rory to enter in before him. 

"Jordan." Tristan's voice was playful in response to seeing his younger brother walking up the stairs. "Got anything planned for the evening?"

"Why?" Jordan was slowly walking up the stairs, his voice wary.

"We're gonna watch a movie. Thought you might want to watch with us." Rory knew that no good could come from Tristan asking Jordan to do something with them, but what could she say? Jordan was smiling like he'd won the lottery.

"Sure."

Tristan nodded. "You guys get snacks and I'll set the movie up."

Rory stood outside the pantry while Jordan handed out the food as she asked for it. 

"Popcorn?" 

He pulled it out and handed it to her. "Check."

"Gummy Bears?"

"Check."

"Chocolate?"

"Check." Jordan backed out of the pantry and moved to the fridge. "What soda do you want?"

"Fanta."

"Okay." Jordan grabbed a few cans and closed the fridge with his foot. "Let's go."

Rory hadn't missed that he had been avoiding her eyes. "It's alright you know. The dream thing. No big deal."

He shrugged as they started up the stairs. "I know, it's just, embarrassing. I hate Tristan."

Rory grinned. "He does have a big fat mouth doesn't he? Well if it makes you feel better, Tristan still has them."

"Has what?"

"Wet dreams."

"Really? About who?" Jordan was starting to smirk.

"I can't tell you that!" Rory was blushing again.

"You huh?"

"God, you're almost as bad as he is. I'm not telling you."

They walked into the games room to find Tristan on the couch waiting for them with remote in hand. His face was trouble and Rory started to worry. 

"Sit down get comfortable." Tristan gestured lazily at the couch. Jordan flopped into his usual chair after sitting the drinks on the coffee table and Rory sat on the edge of the couch, not touching Tristan. He flashed that smirk at her that said he knew what he was going to do would get him into trouble, but that he was going to do it anyway.

He pressed play and the video whirled and the TV screen went from blue to black. Blue lettering flashed up on screen.

'Wet Dreams 11' followed by even brighter blue writing. 'Barely Legal British Wenches.'

Tristan cracked himself laughing, Jordan stormed out of the room screaming that he hated Tristan and Rory jumped on Tristan trying to wrestle the remote out of his hands.

"God, you're such a bastard Tristan! Give me the remote, I am not watching a porno with you."

Tristan was too busy laughing to avoid the elbow he copped to the ribs as Rory turned the video off. 

"That was perfect!" Tristan gasped for breath. "Did you see his face?"

"No, and if you don't stop teasing him about it, I'm going to tell him about your dreams about you handing in your math homework late."

Tristan sat up face devoid of any humour. "You wouldn't."

"I would."

"You are not a nice girl Rory Gilmore."

"You'd be getting exactly what you deserve." She grinned at him.

"I can think of a better way to shut me up." Tristan wormed his way closer to her.

"Oh really?"

Tristan leaned into her and licked her bottom lip. "Yeah. I can be the naughty school boy and you can be the teacher in leather."

Rory laughed and Tristan put his mouth to her neck and moved in for the kill.

*

_STUPID BROTHER_

_God I hate him. _

_This morning, he came into my room, probably to tell me to hurry up if I wanted a lift. But then he noticed the sheets gone. He came over to me where I was sitting at my desk writing in here. He pulled it out of my reach not letting me even finish my sentence and manhandled me into the closet, leaning against the door so I couldn't get out. _

_He read what I had written aloud and started to laugh when he read the bit where I said it was Rory in my dream. _

_He then let me out of the cupboard and said I had 2 minutes to meet him at the car or I'd have to find another way to school. He smiled all the way there._

_I finally asked him why he was still grinning and he said he had a surprise for Rory._

_And I knew exactly what that surprise was. _

_The only thing that surprised me was that he didn't yell it down the corridor. But I figured that had more to do with Rory than me. He didn't give a shit if I was going to be embarrassed, but he didn't want Rory to be. Not in public anyway. _

_I saw him all damn day. And when I wasn't avoiding him I was running into Rory. _

_When they came in that night and Tristan asked me to watch the movie with them I figured it was because Rory had threatened him with something to make him be nice to me. So I said yes to watching the movie._

_I should have known better_.

_I hope that he leaves the tape in the video player. I haven't seen that one._


	7. 07

Author: Nat

Rating: PG13

Spoilers: I'm Australian and because we're so far behind I don't think it applies… besides, it's mostly AU anyways.

Pairing: Rory/Tristan

Standard disclaimer applies

A/N: Thanks the Scar for betaing. Thanks to Sus for babysitting me through this chapter. Thanks to Surya who assured me that the fluff isn't fluff, its me being subtle. Thanks to Naters for the reference material for future chapters *smirk*. Choca, you lil slackarse… I dedicate this to you, cause you obey the letter of my laws if not the spirit.

Kayles: Jordan is in 7th grade… Currently he's 12.

Enjoy!

**- The Life and Times of an Unwelcome Third Wheel -**

_Tristan got suspended again. And the surprising thing was Dad didn't go ballistic. Well, not much._

_He and Rory fell out of a closet at school. Hardly suspension worthy, they were clothed and everything, but Tristan got dumb and told Headmaster Charleston that the only thing he saw wrong about the situation was that they had been in a closet where the door opened out rather than in and that he wouldn't make that mistake again, Rory had laughed about it and Charleston decided that 2 days off from school would be adequate time for them to think over what they had done and blah blah blah._

_I think Tristan loved the idea of 2 days off school that he could spend with Rory. Of course Rory was mad at him and didn't see or speak to him for those two days, so his plan went down the toilet and then Dad dragged him to his office to do drudge work for him. _

_Yeah, anyway, Dad comes home, finds Tristan ensconced in front of the TV and they have a 'conversation' about what Tristan was going to do for those 2 days. Surprisingly while Dad ranted, Tristan actually listened. He didn't interrupt or argue or anything. I think that was the only thing that saved his ass. Dad had been threatening a Rory ban during out of school hours. _

_And while that would of sucked, cause Rory is fun and Tristan is a million times easier to get along with when she's around, it would have been great to see Tristan suffer. In more ways than one. _

_I used to listen in on their phone conversations a lot after I first met Rory. Tristan eventually broke me of that habit by gluing the phone to my hand. But I listened into the conversation when she called him. The first time they spoke to each other since they were suspended._

*

The door opened and Lorelai stomped in. "I'm sick of mopey boring Rory. I want my fun Rory back. Call him."

She threw the phone on the bed next to Rory and closed the door behind her. Rory looked at the phone a few minutes before dialling and putting it to her ear. 

"Dugrey residence, Jordan speaking."

"Hey Jordan, it's Rory, is Tristan available?"

"Yeah, hang on I'll get him." Jordan replied.

"Thanks." There was some yelling and then Tristan yelled into the phone for Jordan to hang up, making Rory wince at the loud noise.

"Hello?"

"Hey." 

"Hey, how are you doing?"

"I'm fine." Rory paused, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" She could hear his grin.

"For not talking to you for the past few days."

"Yeah, well, I'm sorry I got you suspended."

"Not entirely your fault." Rory rolled to lie on her back. "I mean I was there too. In the closet."

"Yeah, I remember." She blushed at the tone of his voice before he cleared his throat. "Still, I shouldn't have cracked that joke."

Rory hadn't laughed at the joke, it really hadn't been that funny. She had laughed because she was at that point of hysteria where she either laughed at the situation or broke down in a blubbering mess of nerves and sheer, unadulterated humiliation. 

"Probably not the best idea you've ever had." 

"So, make up work, you wanna study this weekend?" She could hear him smiling.

"I haven't missed any work."

"What, how did you manage that?"

"Madeline has been faxing me stuff each day. And it's not like I had anything better to do."

"That's cheating!" She laughed, Tristan actually sounded offended. "Now I'm not going to get to see you this weekend."

"You should have thought about that before you spent all your time lazing around by your pool and TV."

"Ahh, but I didn't smarty pants. Dad made me go to work with him."

"Lucky you."

"It wasn't so bad." Tristan sounded sincere enough so Rory left it. "So, does Lorelai hate me even more now?"

"Would you be surprised if I told you that after her initial freak out she actually offered to buy me new shoes for, and I quote 'a reward for finally behaving like a teenager and not a sixty year old'?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, then she went on for an hour about all the times and ways she got suspended."

Tristan laughed again. "So if I were to show up on your doorstep sometime this weekend, she wouldn't come at me with something sharp? Like scissors or a knife?"

"I make no guarantees when it comes to her. And you. It's like oil and water, or maybe not water, oil and sparks maybe."

"So this whole thing where you didn't talk to me forever."

"Forever?"

"Forever, two days, same thing."

"Hardly."

"Felt the same."

"Well that was sufficiently sappy. Let's not have another line like that one."

Tristan smirked hearing her laughter. "Alright then. So why didn't you?"

"Why didn't I what?"

"Talk to me? You avoided my calls, hell, you even avoided it when I made Jordan call you for me."

"I could hear you telling him to give you the phone in the background."

"Ahh. So?"

"'Cause I freaked out."

"About what?"

"I got suspended, Tristan! Me! Going-to-Harvard-have-set-all-my-goals-to-achieve-it-Rory Gilmore! I'm not that girl that makes out in closets at school, I don't get suspended, I don't get sent to the Headmasters office for PDA's! I'm perfect Rory Gilmore." Rory gasped for breath.

"You're not perfect Rory, far from it."

"I'm supposed to be."

"Well, you're not and I love you anyway."

"What did I say about the sappy lines?"

"Yeah, whatever. The point is that no one's perfect Rory. You're seventeen. You're supposed to make mistakes and do dumb things."

"Well, I don't want to," she stated stubbornly, slapping a foot to her bed.

"Great philosophy, boring-as-shit life."

"And, as usual, it's been charming to talk to you. I'll see you at school, Tristan."

"Wait! Come on, Ror, when are you gonna realise that that's your M.O?"

"My M.O?" Rory snorted, "Too much NYPD for you babe."

"Seriously, it's what you do. You do something, then you think 'oh no, that's not something perfect-little-me should do' then you freak out and take a couple of days to calm down and then you realise that it wasn't the end of the world after all. And I don't watch that show, give me some credit."

"I do not!"

"Yes you do! First time we kissed, well okay, second time. First time we ever did anything even remotely sexual, from first base to all the way. First time you stayed overnight here, first time I stayed there at your house. First time I got you drunk, which ok, probably you were right to freak out at me about that one, but then there was also the time you freaked out about-"

"I get the point, Tristan." Rory interrupted. "And who uses the base system anymore?"

"Would you rather I told you in more graphic terms? Okay, how about when I fingered you for the first time, remember that? We were having lunch in Central Park after spending the morning at the Guggenheim and you-"

"I remember Tristan. But I don't really, do I?"

"Freak out? Run away? Yes."

"I don't mean to."

"I know. It's not the worst thing in the world, you know, just frustrating at times."

"Sorry."

"Forget about it. This whole conversation got off track anyway. Let's get back to the reason I called you."

"Which was?"

"This weekend."

"Yes but I don't need to catch up on any school work."

"Okay, well, I didn't really want to do school work anyway, it was code for 'get you to my house and do nefarious things to your naked body without having your Mother know what I really have planned for you'."

"Right. Great code, Morse."

Rory grinned again as Tristan put on a faux British accent. "What can I say? I'm clever like that. So, do I get to see you this weekend?"

"Morse was an American."

"Rooorrrryyyy." 

"God, don't whine, you sound like you're twelve years old."

"And we sure as shit don't need another one of those around."

"Tristan."

"Did I tell you he had a fight with Dad the other day?"

"Jordan? Really? What about?"

"I dunno, I wasn't paying that much attention, but now I know he's not a complete loser. There's some hope for him yet."

"He never was a loser."

"Yeah, well, for a while there I was thinking of calling him Pinocchio."

"Pinocchio?"

"Little puppet boy who's maker pulls his strings."

"You're horrible."

"Sometimes." She could hear the truth of it in his statement. "I think Dad was actually proud that he stood up to him."

"He said that?"

"Of course not. He said that Jordan was being disobedient and would be dealt with accordingly."

"And?"

"And nothing. I told you he was proud about it."

"You have the weirdest family."

"Says the girl who's mother is known far and wide for-"

"Be nice." Rory warned.

"I had no intentions not to be nice."

"Sure. What were you going to say then?"

"Give me a minute and I'll come up with something appropriate."

She grinned. "I'll bet."

"Okay, so this weekend?"

"I'll think about it."

"You know what happens to boys when girls are all talk and tease and no action don't you, Mary?"

"No, why don't you tell me?"

"It's a very, _very_ serious condition called blue-"

"Goodbye, Tristan."

"Come on, what's a little phone sex before bed between lovers?"

"I'll see you at school, Tristan."

"Night, Rory."

Rory hung up the phone smiling.

*

_It wasn't a fight. More of a disagreement, I guess. Tristan can be such a drama queen sometimes. I mean, this is the guy who, when he was 10, told his teacher that he was going to have to go to hospital or he was going to die when he fell off the jungle gym and bumped his head._

_And it was over something really dumb, something so dumb I don't even remember what it was now. Whatever. He didn't bring it up again and neither did I._

_But there was a _subtle_ shift in our relationship. Ha! Subtle is our English class word of the day, Medina would be happy. I think it's the first time I've actually even bothered to try and fit one of the words in a sentence._

_Anyway, after the argument, he started to ask my opinion on things. Just on small things like, what did I think about such-and-such a book, or, what did I think about whatever or whoever. It was like he didn't think I could have an opinion until then, or maybe a better way to say it was he didn't think I could have a valid opinion until I actually stepped up and gave him that first one. _

_He was far from having the same conversations with me that he had with Tristan, but whatever, like I give a fuck about America's foreign debt. _

_Maybe one day, right now I have enough trouble understanding my trig homework. _


	8. 08

Author: Nat

Rating: PG13

Spoilers: I'm Australian and because we're so far behind I don't think it applies… besides, it's mostly AU anyways.

Pairing: Rory/Tristan

Standard disclaimer applies

A/N: Huge thanks to Sus who beta'ed this when it was in drabble, she's managed to fix the crappy bits she could. Anything else is my fault. 

Enjoy!

**- The Life and Times of an Unwelcome Third Wheel -**

_I have to get last night out of my head. _

_I had sex for the first time on my 13th birthday. I'd been dating Courtney for about 3 weeks, I guess. Our first date was to one of Chilton's dances and she let me get to 3rd base behind a tree on the hall's grounds. I had done that before, but not usually on the first date. Not that I'm complaining. _

_Dad let us have a party for my 13th and I say us because Tristan was allowed to invite his moronic friends. Our parents went to a Spa in the Catskills for the weekend leaving us free run of the house. So it turned into one of those free-for-alls where everyone from school turns up. Rory didn't want to come, she hated parties like that, but she came anyway. _

_The best thing about having an older brother? If he has a fake ID, he'll supply the beer. Well Tristan did. Not that I drank it, I had more than learned that lesson._

_At 10.24pm exactly Courtney gave me my present. Best. Present. Ever. _

_I keep getting these mental images of last night. I really need to make it stop. _

_Courtney. We're not together now… we broke up 3 weeks ago, I guess… which would make it about 3 weeks after my birthday. Lots of 3's here. We had sex a lot those three weeks after my birthday. And I didn't want to break up with her, that was her choice. Like I'd give up all that sex. But it was no big deal, sex isn't exactly plentiful in the 7th grade… But in our world your last name buys things better than the greenback ever will. So, there was Courtney. Then there was Jessica and then last time there was Bernice. _

_Rory busted me making out in the hallway at school with Jessica. It was rather embarrassing. She grabbed me by the ear and dragged me halfway through the school and dumped me on Tristan. Like he was meant to do something about it. Tristan listened to Rory rant about my behaviour for a minute before telling her he'd talk to me and dragging me into a classroom. He told me there were 3 rules he stood by, 4 after getting suspended._

_1. Try to keep it pg13 in the hallway._

_2. You want more than pg13, take it into a room or closet._

_3. Keep all your clothes on at all times. _

_4. If you get busted, don't make jokes about it. Especially if your girlfriend is with you._

_Then he grinned and tacked on that if you're in a closet make sure the door opens in, or don't lean on it. _

_Tristan had then slapped my shoulder in a weird, scary, buddy-buddy kind of way and told me that if Rory found out that he told me any of this I was a dead man. He also suggested it wasn't the smartest thing to make out near Rory's locker. _

_I listened. Not because he was my older brother, like that would make a difference, but because if these were his rules, then they must work. It was Tristan, he had a reputation. But he still had Rory._

_I'm all over the shop tonight. I can't concentrate on anything. It's because of what happened last night, I'm sure. I'm still in shock or something. _

_I heard Rory scream, and so I went running to see what was wrong. I raced into Tristan's room, thinking she had hurt herself. God, I don't think I've ever seen anyone move so fast. But then, she was naked, so she was more aerodynamic and stuff. _

_I'd walked in on them before, but she was never naked, and they had never been doing **that** before. Damn._

_I just sort of froze… Then Tristan yelled and threw something that hit me. It hit me hard too, I have a bruise from it. But it got me moving. I ran out the door and he threw something else that smashed on the door as it bounced open again behind me. I was probably moving as fast as Rory trying to get the hell out of the room._

*

"Oh god, oh god, oh god." Rory's words we muffled by the bedcovers that she was now smothering herself with. Lack of oxygen didn't matter, not now. She was ready to die, now would be good.

"Rory." She could hear the laughter in Tristan's voice.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god." She could blame Tristan. He was the one that made her scream. And he was deriving entirely too mush enjoyment from her humiliation. 

"Ror." She felt him pull at the covers and she tightened her grip. She felt his hand smooth up her leg and she kicked out at him. 

"Oh god, oh god, oh god." She hated him. That's all there was to say about it. He said he had locked his door. 

"Mary." He grabbed her ankle and started to pull her out from under the covers. He reached her thighs.

"Oh god! Oh God! Oh God!" Rory pulled the covers off her head and glared at Tristan. "Get your hands off me. And for god sake, go and close the door!"

Tristan grinned and got up to close the door. Rory buried herself under the covers again. 

Rory listened as the door closed. She bounced as Tristan jumped back on the bed, digging himself under the covers with her. Rory scowled when he kissed her on the end of her nose.

"Hey under here where it's stifling and I can't breathe." He wiggled some more, moving his legs to wind with hers. "Wanna come out from here and not suffocate to death?"

"No."

"It's not that bad."

"Not that bad? Not that bad?" Rory's voice rose. "Jordan just saw, he just saw, he walked in on us-"

Granting mercy on her inability to finish her sentence he continued for her, "Saw us having sex."

"Yes, but like that, he saw us having sex like… that!"

"Nothing he hasn't seen in porn before." Tristan shrugged and threw the covers off their heads. They both sucked in large cool breaths of air. "In fact after the past few weeks I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't done it himself."

Rory sucked in a few more deep breaths before pulling the covers back over her head. "Oh god. I don't want to know."

Tristan moved both of them around until they were wrapped around each other with the covers pulled up to Rory's neck, but not over her head. "Stop saying that."

"What?"

"Oh god." Tristan pitched his voice to mimic Rory. "It's not the end of the world."

"I don't know about that." She thought about it for a minute and started to worm her way back down under the covers. "Oh god."

Tristan gripped her hips and pulled her on top of him, he was saving her from suffocating he assured himself. "Ror."

"Don't even try it." Rory pulled away from his searching lips.

"I wasn't. Honest." Tristan smirked. "Just wanted a cuddle."

"And I had to be on top of you for this?"

"You want to be on the bottom?" Tristan ran his hands down her back. "We could do that. Or I could get be-"

"Tristan!" Rory slapped his chest before slumping down on him and pulling the covers back up over her head. "God."

"Well at least we've dropped the 'oh'." Tristan folded the covers back down to her shoulders.

"God." Rory buried her face into Tristan's neck. "I'm so embarrassed."

"Still?"

"Yes, still!" Rory relaxed as Tristan started to draw on her back with his fingertips. 

"Sorry."

"I'll get over it." The covers slipped off the bed and Tristan sighed. "Get up off me so I can fix the bed."

Rory sat up, straddling him. "You fix the bed?"

"I'm not that incompetent. I've been to places where I've had to make my own bed. Besides, all I have to do is throw the cover on again."

Rory leaned into kiss him. "I'll do it."

She pulled away to get off the bed but Tristan pulled her back. "Later. It will just fall off again."

He kissed her again and she raised a brow. "You sure about that, cause as I recall, we weren't even on the bed before."

"Your right." Tristan pushed at Rory and she stumbled off the bed. She heard Tristan open and close his bedside drawer behind her. 

"Did you lock the door?"

"I locked the door."

"You're sure?"

"Positive."

Rory just hoped she didn't scream again.

*

_Damn it, thinking about the sex I've had was supposed to get that out of my head!_

_It's actually been kinda weird. I haven't been writing in here about it. I've been talking to Tristan about it. That in its self is weird enough. Tristan and I don't talk. We don't hang out like friends, I do my best to annoy the shit out of him and he does his best not to maim me when his tolerance has been worn out. _

_But he started to pay attention to me. I guess he heard some things at school. Whatever. I'm sure that whatever he's done is worse than anything I've done. _

_We had an argument about the way he thought I was treating the girls I've seen. He thought I was being disrespectful. _

_More like Rory thought I was being disrespectful and he was siding with her. _

_He made a big deal out of it. He said he didn't care if I slept with the entire female population of Connecticut, but that telling all my friends was disrespectful and if I wanted to have any hope of getting laid in my later years at Chilton I should keep it to myself. He said that people would talk about me enough anyway. _

_He asked me if I wanted to go to the movies with him and Rory yesterday afternoon and I realised that its been about a month since Rory asked me to go anywhere with them, its been about a month since she even talked to me to say more than hello. Other than pulling me through the school by the ear, she hasn't talked to me since just before Courtney broke up with me. She hasn't told me why, but I imagine it has something to do with what Tristan has been talking to me about.  _

_Rory not talking to me more than anything Tristan said, made me decide that whatever he was saying was right. _

_I missed Rory. She was like an older sister, ok, so I had a little crush on her, but who wouldn't, she was pretty and smart and nice. But mostly she was just like a big sister. I had fun with her and Tristan, and fun wasn't something we got a lot of in our world._

_And I want to do what they were doing last night. And if Tristan could get a girl like Rory to do something like **that**, he had to know **something** about girls and the way they think. It wouldn't hurt to listen to what he has to say. Or get on his good side to learn more about what he knows._

_Sure wouldn't mind learning how he did what he was doing last night._


	9. 09

Author: Nat

Rating: PG13

Spoilers: I'm Australian and because we're so far behind I don't think it applies… besides, it's mostly AU anyways.

Pairing: Rory/Tristan

Standard disclaimer applies

A/N: Ahhh… I feel like I'm back in my groove here. I didn't really like the two previous chapters… But I had to get them out of my head and onto paper so to speak, so I could move on past them. Hopefully you'll all like this chapter more (though I promise nothing) It's longer at least, that might make up for the storyline *smirk*.

Thanks to Sus for beta-ing once again. Surya for the encouraging reactions to the spoilers. Thanks to Nate for his encouragement. Thanks to all you lil loyal reviewers! Your reviews mean everything, please keep them coming! See what happens when you review Chocs? You get what you asked for!

Also, know that I'm not going to tell anyone what Tristan and Rory were doing in his room before Jordan interrupted in the last chapter. Feel free to make it up in your head though ;) 

Enjoy!

**- The Life and Times of an Unwelcome Third Wheel -**

_Tristan and Rory broke up._

_And it was so weird. Everything was weird._

_The first month they were broken up Tristan avoided Rory. It was probably this behaviour that made everyone think he had done the dirty on her and cheated. The second month it was Rory avoiding Tristan. By then the gossips had given up and moved on to more interesting subjects. _

_The third month they were broken up I saw them in the hallways together more than when they were actually going steady. It was like they couldn't stay away from each other. They would have these whispered arguments and then one of them would storm off. Then all of a sudden they started to avoid each other. _

_I knew why. It was because of what happened at Madeline's party. _

_But of course Tristan is the luckiest son of a bitch on the earth. Everything he wants, he gets. It might not have seemed like that in the beginning, but everything always works out the way he wants it to._

_Except when it comes to Rory._

_I was told to get a tutor for trig. I was failing and Tristan had reverted to his asshole brother gig and refused to help. So I asked Rory. _

_She didn't want to at first. But I begged and pleaded and bribed and finally she agreed to stay behind and catch a later bus like she did on the days she had student council meetings. I think it was because she and Tristan were getting along slightly better by then that she agreed._

_Then the weekend before my make up trig test she came over on a Saturday afternoon to study with me. This probably would have been fine because Tristan was out doing whatever it was he did to escape listening to Dad talk about how he was screwing up his life with the way he was acting. But then my mother invited Rory to stay for dinner. _

_And Tristan showed up with a girl. _

_This girl, her name was Carli. And I knew it was Carli cause she spelt it out. C. A. R. L. I. Every single time Tristan introduced her. _

_'It's Carli, like, with an I, like c, a, r, l, i!'_

_She was perky and bubbly and vapid and she annoyed the shit out of Dad. That was amusing at least. Dad would start an argument with Rory on say something like Shakespeare and Carli would keep interrupting with these stupid comments like 'Hamlet was, like, a good movie, but Lethal Weapon 3 was so much better.'_

_Dad would just flat out ignore her, but Rory would look from her to Tristan and back again and then she'd start to talk about movies. And she would zing all these little underhanded comments directed at Tristan. It was great because Tristan couldn't really say anything back with his date at the table._

_And Carli kept asking our Mother questions and I could see her getting tenser and tenser until in the middle of desert Mother stands up and announces she would like to show Rory the night-blooming orchids. They leave the room together and Dad shoots this look at Tristan that clearly states someone will be dying for tonight._

*

Rory felt as tense as Cecille Dugrey looked as they walked along the lighted footpath to the hothouses. 

"Are you sorry you stayed for dinner, dear?"

Rory hesitated before answering. "No. And yes."

"You're welcome anytime dear, you know that."

"Didn't much feel like it tonight."

"Ahh, it's the Dugrey failing. When they do well, they do exceedingly well. When they fuck up, they fuck up completely."

"Mrs Dugrey!" Rory sounded shocked, and then she giggled.

"Sorry dear, I've picked up this habit of blurting out things before I think about it. A side affect of the latest prescription."

Rory nodded as they walked into the large hothouse. "How are you doing? I haven't seen you to ask lately."

Cecille shrugged as she handed Rory a flashlight. "I'm alright I guess. This prescription, aside from a few small side affects, seems to be working well for me."

Rory nodded. She had had many conversations with Cecille Dugrey and she had never seemed as lucid as she did now. 

"I want to get better." Cecille blurted, "It's just… It's not, it's-"

"Not that easy?"

"Yes." Rory falls into step behind Cecille as she walks between two shelves of plants. "I have a thirteen year old son who sees me as a woman who lives in his house and a seventeen year old son who can't talk to me. I would give anything to be well enough to be their mother. A proper mother. But it's just not that simple."

"They love you."

"I wonder about that sometimes. It's hard on them. I make it hard."

"No, you don't."

"Don't pretend to think that you know me." Cecille snapped at Rory.

"I don't know you. But I know Tristan and I know Jordan. And I know they love you." Rory stood there, waiting for Cecille to say something. "It is hard, but it doesn't make them not love you. It doesn't even make them love you less."

"You're so sure of that." She sounded like a little girl to Rory, a lost little girl.

"I am." Rory took her hand. "Are you going to show me the orchids?"

"Of course, of course." 

For half an hour they wandered through the hothouse, Cecille sharing her love of flowers with Rory. 

Rory glanced at her watch it was getting late. "I'm sorry Mrs Dugrey, but I'm going to have to call it a night."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I can get a little caught up out here."

She smiled, "That's perfectly okay. I'd be more than happy to stay if I didn't have to get up early in the morning. It's beautiful in here."

"During summer, you must come with Emily to the Cereus Party." They had exited the hothouse and were slowly walking back up the path towards the house again.

"The Cereus Party?"

"It's a succulent that blooms one night a year. Very beautiful, very hard to grow here, especially considering it's a desert plant native to Nevada."

"And you have one? I can't say I'm surprised after seeing what's in the hothouse."

They entered the house arm in arm to find David and Jordan playing a game of chess. Tristan was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Carli-with-an-i. Rory tried not to let her disappointment show.

"Rory, dear!" David Dugrey demanded, "Did you enjoy the orchids?"

"I did. They're all very beautiful."

"Indeed, indeed. None of them, however, can hold a candle to my sweet wife and yourself." Rory grinned as Jordan rolled his eyes at her behind his fathers back. 

"Cute." She replied. He laughed and stood from his game. 

"Tomorrow, Son? It's past us old folks bed time." 

"Sure, Dad." Jordan replied sticking his finger in his mouth and poking out his tongue as David and Cecille left the room together. "That's just gross."

"What?" Rory asked as she gathered her book bag and coat.

"Ancient people holding hands."

"They're hardly ancient." Rory laughed.

"Oh they so are. They're like, forty."

"Be careful there Jordan, you might catch it."

"Catch what?"

"Old age." Rory grinned to herself as Jordan rolled his eyes at her again.

"You can't catch old age."

"Don't bet on it. First you start to forget things, then, you start to get wrinkles and grey hair. It all goes downhill from there." She said confidently. Jordan walked with her to the front door.

"Thanks for the help today."

"No problem. If you get stuck tomorrow give me a call. If not, I'll meet you first thing Monday morning in the library, okay?"

"Sure." Jordan replied as Rory stepped outside to find Tristan sitting in the driver's seat of the jeep, his feet resting on the small running board. "Bye Rory."

The door closed behind her and Rory made her way over to Tristan and the jeep.

"Tristan."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know you'd be staying for dinner."

"It doesn't matter Tristan. We're not together anymore." She pulled the door open further as Tristan slid out of the car.

"No, we're not." He stood in the door, blocking her way to the driver's seat.

"What do you want Tristan?" Rory could feel the urge to fidget, but held herself still. She knew what he wanted.

"I want you." He moved in towards her, invading her personal space, and she felt her back hit the inside of the jeeps door. "That still hasn't changed."

"Too many other things have though."

"Yeah, I've heard that one already. Right before you had sex with me at Madeline's party. Right after too."

Rory shoved at Tristan, trying to get him to move so she could get in the jeep and get away from him. He didn't move. "Don't."

"Don't what? Don't remind you of the things you've said and done?"

"Just don't." Rory's hand was no longer pushing at him, instead it was holding onto his jacket.

"You know, every time I see you, I start to wonder why we broke up. Because, I still want you, and I miss you."

"You broke up with me." Rory could feel her eyes tearing up again and she didn't want to cry. She'd cried more over Tristan than she had in her entire life. 

"Yeah, but I don't know why anymore." Tristan dipped his head and kissed her temple. His lips moved over her jaw and to her neck as she replied in a soft voice.

"Because I kissed Jess." Tristan pulled away.

"Yeah, but you're not with him right?" She shook her head no. "Then why aren't we together? You only kissed him that one time right?"

She ducked her head. 

"You kissed him more than once? God Rory!"

"Tristan-"

"No. No! You said you weren't with him, you said it happened that one time!"

"It was only that one time!" Rory swiped at her tears. "We only kissed once when we were together."

Tristan pushed away from her but she grabbed his jacket and pulled him back. 

"You always do this! You kiss me and you say things that make me think that maybe we could get back together again! And then it all comes back to the fact that nothing has changed!"

"You're the one that keeps saying that everything is different now!"

"Nothing has changed in that everything is different from how it was when we were together." Rory fingers were starting to cramp where they were holding on to his jacket tightly in the cold night air.

"Whatever Rory. I don't care."  Tristan was staring over her shoulder and Rory turned to see Jordan watching them out of the sitting room window. She turned back to his voice, "When was the last time you kissed him Rory?"

"A few weeks ago." She whispered. She didn't want to tell him this.

"A few weeks ago when? Before or after Madeline's party?"

"Tristan-"

"Just answer the question Rory."

"After." _Don't push, don't push,_ Rory begged in her mind.

"How soon after?"

"And it was only once after." Rory avoided answering him. She didn't want him to know, she didn't want to tell him. He hated her enough as it was now. "I haven't kissed him since. And god! Like it even matters! You've slept with more girls in the past few months than I even knew were at Chilton. You brought Carli home to meet your family!"

"You cheated on me Rory! Not the other way around! And as you insist on throwing it in my face every time I get within a touching distance of you, _we're broken up_! _We're not together anymore_!" Tristan yelled at her, slapping her hands away from his jacket before stepping away and taking a deep breath, then stepping back to her again. "How soon after we slept together Rory?"

She slumped, defeated. She whispered the words into her chest, refusing to meet his eyes. "Same night, right after I left Madeline's."

Tristan walked away without a word.

* 

_I was so angry with Rory after she kissed Jess. I mean he was this monosyllabic ass who had been kicked out of his Mother's house and sent to live with his uncle. What could Rory possibly see in him when compared to Tristan?_

_But then Tristan went back to being a complete asshole and the meaner he was to me, the more I talked to Rory. Though the more I talked to Rory, the nastier he got, so maybe that wasn't the greatest idea I've ever had. But whatever._

_I've said it before and I'll say it again. He could be **SO** dumb when it came to her. _

_First there was the avoiding, then there was the fighting, then there was a brief period when they were slightly friendly, then they slept together at Madeline's party. And then all of a sudden they were **both** avoiding each other._

_It was during that friendly phase I got her to tutor me and we had this conversation about why she had stopped talking to me that time._

_"If you could treat your girlfriend like that, talk about her like that, what was to stop you from talking about me like that?" She'd asked._

_I'd replied with an, "I dunno."_

_"It wasn't very nice. It was disappointing."_

_"Probably." And to her it probably was. But for the first time, I had been getting more attention than Tristan, and I'd liked it. "But it doesn't matter, she's not my girlfriend anymore."_

_"Not the point Jordan. You should treat people the way you would have them treat you. How would you have felt if Courtney had told all her friends that you weren't, uh, let's say, up to the job?"_

_"God Rory!" That embarrassed me, but at least she hadn't said anything about the size of my dick._

_"I get the point Rory. But it wouldn't have mattered. It was hardly what I'd call a lasting relationship."_

_"You're 13 Jordan. It's high school, nothing lasts."_

_She said that in a way that I knew it meant it had a double meaning. I knew she was talking about her and Tristan as much as anything about me. I knew Tristan wanted her back and I knew that she missed him. I also knew she was seeing Jess._

_But it was high school._

_Nothing Lasts. Right?_


	10. 10

Author: Nat

Rating: PG13

Spoilers: I'm Australian and because we're so far behind I don't think it applies… besides, it's mostly AU anyways.

Pairing: Rory/Tristan

Standard disclaimer applies

A/N: So this is the last chapter. So very many thanks to give out.

Surya and Sus, two great girls who beta'd for me, babysat me, pulled me up short when needed, wouldn't let me kill off Jordan, let me bitch and whine at them, taught me about the American school system, told me what I needed to hear and told me what I didn't want to know. Ladies, you rock my world.

Scar (also for her betaing assistance),  Nate (for as yet unused research material) The kids from fanforum Trory thread (Ahh, a better place to get a fix I haven't found), The kids from Gumboot Mafia & NWP (they read me even when they don't normally read GG fic and answered a bazillion questions on the American way of life), Everyone who reviewed me (at ff.net, gbm, and via email from my webpage).

I have been thinking about a sequel, but I'm not sure if I want to commit to it yet, let me know what you think.

Ok, that's it from me. I hope you enjoy the final chapter of third wheel.

Nat

**- The Life and Times of an Unwelcome Third Wheel -**

_I did it. I survived 7th grade._

_I survived my first year in Chilton._

_I passed all my end of year finals and got all my reports in on time and all that crap. I even managed to get a 3.4gpa. Trig dragged me down, but at least I didn't fail it. _

_It's the first week of summer break and already I can feel my brain petrifying. I've managed to do nothing other than watch 3 seasons worth of Dragonball Z on DVD. Dad is starting to get that look on his face that says I had better get off my ass and do something soon, or he'll find something for me to do. I mean, we actually talk and get along now, most of the time anyway, he talks to me rather than just giving orders, so that's cool. Still, its summer, I don't want to do anything.  _

_I have this feeling that I'll be spending a lot of time out of the house, if it would stop fucking raining. I probably would have conned my way into going to Stars Hollow with Tristan, but he won't be going there now. I'm probably going to be spending a lot of time at the club or at the reserve swimming with the guys from school. Anything to avoid Tristan's fate, he somehow got roped into going to work with Dad twice a week. Although Tristan didn't seem to mind, he wasn't complaining at least. _

_It's just been a huge year. So many things have happened, so many things have changed. Like school wasn't enough, I get dragged into Tristan's dramas. Ok, so I wasn't so much dragged into it as much as I wormed my way into it. I liked Rory, she's the kind of person that makes it worth putting up with Tristan's moods to hang out with her. But then somewhere along the line Tristan stopped being such a bastard to me and started to talk to me. And that was great, right up until him and Rory broke up. Then he went back to being a bastard, though the past few days have been better, so there's hope for us getting along I guess. _

_This year has just been one big learning curve, so many firsts. _

_But when you get right down to it, it all comes back to Rory._

*

"Rory!"

Rory looked up from the bookshelf in the store and saw Jordan waving to her from across the room. She smiled and made her way through the crowd to him. "Hey, Jordan. How's your summer going so far?"

They both looked out the bookstores large windows to where it was raining from dark grey clouds. 

"Oh, it's just dandy." Jordan said sarcastically. "It's been raining all week, and I'm stuck at home with Tristan who's been sulking."

"Oh." Rory hugged the book to her chest and started towards the bookstores café. 

"You seeing Jess still?" Jordan followed her. 

"I wasn't seeing him to start with. Not really."

"Then why aren't you with Tristan?"

"He doesn't want to be with me anymore." Rory shrugged uncomfortable with the conversation.

"Right, because if he had someone better waiting he wouldn't be home sulking." Rory flinched at the sarcastic tone Jordan used. He sounded exactly like Tristan. 

"He's sulking? Nevermind." Rory shook her head, "It's his decision."

Rory sat at a nearby table and ordered a coffee-to-go from a waiter, she waived for Jordan to sit with her. "Do you want anything?"

The waiter added Jordan's request for a milkshake and left.

"So, what are you going to do this summer, Rory?" Jordan fiddled with a sugar packet. "Wait, weren't you and Paris going to some conference thing in Washington?"

"Yeah, it was cancelled. So now I'm going to work at the Inn, read lots of books, hangout Lane, play golf with Grandpa, have lunch with Grandma, be lazy." She grinned, glad to be off the topic of Tristan. 

"Sounds great. Better than being at home anyway."

Rory smiled, "You're welcome to join me anytime you want to. And I'll be coming to see you soon anyway."

"You will?" Jordan's voice lilted with hope.

"Your mother invited me to the Cereus party." 

"Oh." He slumped back in his seat and Rory smiled uncertainly, she wanted to go, she wanted to see Tristan. But she knew Tristan didn't want to see her, and she didn't blame him. He had said to her that he didn't hate her for what she did and she believed him, but she hated herself enough for both of them. 

"Sorry to disappoint you kid."

"I just wish you'd come back and make Tristan happy again."

"He's still too angry to be around me," Rory gave money to the waiter as he gave them their drinks. Sipping at her coffee in its cardboard cup before she continued, "And he has every right to be."

"Still…"

"Maybe one day we can be friends again. But nothing lasts forever, Jordan. No matter how much we wish it would." Rory stood up from the table making her way to the front of the store.

"If you could go back and change it, not kiss Jess, would you?" Jordan walked with Rory to the counter to pay for her book.

"I've never regretted anything I've done, I don't believe in having regrets." Rory looked him in the eyes. "But for the first time in my life, I've found something I would change if I could."

Rory handed over her money and they left the store together. "If you're not busy on Saturday, you can come and stay in Stars Hollow. Lane and I are going to have a video night."

Jordan smiled, "Sure, what time?"

"Sixish." 

"Okay, I'll be there." Jordan replied.

Rory leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "See you then, Jordan." 

*

_It was kind of weird because the other times Rory had kissed me, Tristan had been there. Like on my birthday or Christmas and stuff. This time it was just a kiss for no reason other than she liked me. _

_I came home and told Tristan all about it. The first thing he said to me was he wasn't going to drive me to her house on Saturday, but he will, and he'll pick me up too, because he can't help himself when it comes to her. _

_Not that I can blame him really, Rory is just this fantastic girl, I mean, the day after I first met her, she took the tie off Michael Duffy and replaced it with one of mine that he had cut in half on the first day of school. That was pretty cool you know, cause he's a massive guy and he's a real bastard. She was the girl who had Tristan driving his SUV rather than his Mustang because if I needed a lift, she would refuse to get into the car. And I always needed a lift. _

_I was going to need one this weekend to get to Rory's. I could catch the bus, but why do that when I can make Tristan drive me? _

_Maybe she'll invite him in. More likely he'll dump me on the sidewalk and take off. Moody prick that he is. _

_I have this feeling that Tristan is going to avoid Rory all holidays. And maybe he needs to, to get over her or something. But she'll be at the Cereus party, so he'll have to see her there. And he won't have a date because of him bringing home that Carli chick, we've both been banned dates to the party. Not that I mind. If you bring a date to one of those kinds of parties, you get stuck with them, because parents are all watching, but if you don't have a date, there are always the girls that get dragged along by their parents. _

_I've witnessed Tristan's efforts with these kind of girls for years now, I know what works with them and what doesn't. Shouldn't be too hard to find someone to have some fun with._

_Then again, it could be more entertaining to watch Tristan and Rory.  _

_Whatever, it's the first week of summer break, it will stop raining eventually and when it does, I can get out of this house. Away from Tristan who seems determined to sulk his way into the Guinness Book of Records. Away from Dad who wants me to be something I'm not. Away from Mother. I love my family, but they're driving me insane. Staying at home has never grated like this before, but like I said before, so many things have happened this year, even I think I've grown up a little. _

_Anyway, I survived 7th grade. My first year of Chilton is done. _

_I wonder is 8th grade is going to be as interesting. _

*Fin*__


End file.
